The Return of Fiery Debate in The House
It's not all about McCarthy— this is how it aught to be.
The conduct within the House of Representatives over the past several days is not normal, at least when you look at the past decade’s conduct. There is strong disagreement and principled debate— party lines and longstanding traditions are being put aside— Democrats and Republicans are ‘colluding’ together to determine what is right—
All this is to determine who will be the Speaker of The House of Representatives. I get it, it is a key role in the order and conduct of the chamber. As the elected Presiding Officer of the chamber, the Speaker can rule on procedure disagreements, keep things moving or slowing, and use the parliamentary procedures in strategic, nuanced ways. It’s a big role that’s less understood by many people who’ve never interacted with a parliamentary body.
This behavior should be the standard operating procedure.
This is how the House of Representatives should be operating at all times!
Some people see this days-long, several-times-voted topic as a bad thing. If you’re one of those people, I challenge you to think about this differently: people are fighting against something they strongly oppose, and others are fighting for something they strongly believe in. Strong, passionate fighting (debating) needs to be encouraged. Just weeks ago, we watched the largest omnibus spending bill in our nation’s history pass on without any significant pushback. Wouldn’t it have been great to see some people, even if just twenty people, put up a principled fight on the floor?
Yes, this shows infighting in the Republican party— I know that is concerning to many people who oppose the leftist agendas being religiously advanced by Democrats. Be careful not to conflate things here. If we look at the Republican party over the past twenty years with a critical eye and set partisan biases aside, the truth is that Republicans (collectively) have failed to advance the republican form of government that our Constitution prescribes. Republicans (collectively) have failed to defend individual freedom. Republicans and Democrats in Congress are the swamp— the elite political class that sets principle aside for political gain— the Representatives who succumb to bribery, waver on key issues, concede to peer pressures, and fail to truly represent.
If a healthy Congress is something we want, then this infighting is exactly what we need. Healthy democratic processes die when debate is discouraged. This isn’t about civility or professionalism or whatever else people want to amount to this issue. Debate is what our Representatives are elected to do. Debates used to make a difference and need to be normalized moving forward. Now that we have a partisan-divided Congress, I think there’s more to come!
Call your Representative and Senator, and encourage them to fight more often.